


Waiting Period

by altkeys



Category: The Avengers (2012)
Genre: Angst, M/M, Major Character Injury, No Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-05-04
Updated: 2012-05-04
Packaged: 2017-11-04 20:25:34
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 339
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/397882
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/altkeys/pseuds/altkeys
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He parks himself next to Phil's hospital bed and waits (and waits and waits).</p>
            </blockquote>





	Waiting Period

**Author's Note:**

> 6\. Crying on/with one another.
> 
> Drama is hard and I can barely deal with it in real life, let alone in fiction. I'm not really sure about this one. 
> 
> There is a mention of injuries sustained during torture, but nothing graphic.

Phil nearly dies on a Tuesday and it's only the 'nearly' that stops Clint from blowing the closest HYDRA base to smithereens. Instead, he parks himself next to Phil's hospital bed and waits (and waits and waits).

He'd gone missing a week into a routine mission; the rest of his team found shot point-blank two days after they'd lost radio contact. By the time they'd found Phil (unconscious and handcuffed to a pipe in an abandoned warehouse, with two broken ribs, a dislocated shoulder, and an infected bullet wound in his left thigh) Clint was ready to start praying to a god he didn't even believe in, just to see him again.

He waits at Phil's bedside hour after hour, day after day; he only eats when Steve brings him food, he only leaves when Natasha manhandles him into the shower, and he only sleeps when the exhaustion starts to take him over. Clint knows Phil will yell at him for not taking care of himself (and effectively outing them) when (not if, never if) he wakes up. It's a sign of just how far gone he is, that Clint's actually looking forward to the verbal beat-down.

Right now though, there's only the steady beep...beep...beep of Phil's heart monitor and the rise and fall of his battered chest. Clint rests his head on Phil's arm and tries to pretend like he's not expecting a miracle.

"I know we've never really talked about it," Clint says hoarsely, "but you're not allowed to die on me. Ever. And if you wake up I promise I'll never break radio silence and I'll follow every other order and I'll think before I speak, but you need to wake up first, okay? I'll stop skipping breakfast and I'll always sleep in the wet spot but open open your eyes or twitch your fingers or something. Anything Phil, please."

There's no response, and if Clint's eyes are a little wetter than they were before, there's no one awake to call him on it.


End file.
